Stablecoin-based crypto payment cards posted monthly highs in August for transaction value, number of payments and users. Cryptopolitan, a blockchain outlet, reported on Monday local time that crypto card payments totalled $1.076 billion in August, topping $1 billion for a second straight month after July.

Payments numbered about 10.67 million in August, based on data compiled by PaymentScan. The number of addresses used rose to more than 283,000 from 261,000 the previous month. The average payment value was $100.80.

RedotPay accounted for about 36 percent of the total with $390.1 million in August volume. The number of payments topped 6.34 million, taking its share to 54 percent. The average payment was about $61.50, below the overall average. EtherFi and KAST held onto second and third place in monthly transaction value.

Growth was pronounced in emerging markets. Singapore payments firm StraitsX said total transaction value in low-GDP regions rose 600 percent from early 2025 through 2026 in its Visa card program sponsorship business for other crypto companies. Binance said the average number of users of its Brazil card rose 53 percent in the second quarter of 2026 from the launch quarter, and average transaction value increased 80 percent. Key uses included ride-hailing, food delivery, groceries, restaurants and online subscriptions. Kraken also said weekly payments on its "Krak Card" more than doubled over the past year to 8.3 per user, and that retail and in-store purchases accounted for 59.3 percent of spending.

Lower issuance and settlement costs were also cited as a driver of the spread of small-value payments. Mastercard expanded stablecoin settlement for USDC, Paxos-issued tokens, RLUSD and SoFiUSD to 8 chains on June 3. Visa counted more than 160 stablecoin card programs that are operating or under development. Bridge, a unit of Stripe, along with Rain and Reap, reduced liquidity costs for on-chain settlement and licensing burdens.

Even so, market concentration persisted, with 55.6 percent of total transaction value concentrated in 3 programs. RedotPay's figures are also limited in that they are issuer self-reported data rather than on-chain observations. RedotPay is responding to a claim of about $472.8 million filed in Hong Kong by a Binance affiliate, and it was suggested that a planned $1 billion U.S. listing would be difficult before 2027.

The overall market remains small. Annualised from August volume, transaction value totals about $12.9 billion, or about 0.06 percent of the traditional card market worth more than $20 trillion. Even as stablecoin supply fell 3.6 percent from its May peak to about $304.0 billion, based on DefiLlama, card payments hit a record high over the same period.